THE

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA,

No. LXV.

AND

BIBLICAL REPOSITORY

No. CXVII.

JANUARY, 1860.

ARTICLE I.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE AND OPINIONS OF JOHN MILTON.

(Concluded from Vol. XVI., pp. 557-603.)

BY REV. A. D. BARBER, WILLISTON, vt.

Comparison of the "Christian Doctrine" with Milton's other

Works.

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE assumes the entire credibility of revelation, and the absolute authority of the word of God; also personal and individual responsibility in all matters of faith and practice. No one is known to hold these doctrines with a firmer grasp than John Milton. He relied upon reason and faith as fully competent, when enlightened by the word and the Spirit of God, to ascertain everything man needs to believe and practise, or know and do. Reason he makes submit to faith; and faith stand upon the word of God. In other words, Milton would have belief limited and practice determined by a manly exercise of the understanding and the reason upon the scriptures, as the "common rule and touchstone," or "the only sufficient and infallible guide."

"The Christian Doctrine," he says, in the opening of the treatise, "is that Divine Revelation, disclosed in various ages by Christ (though He was VOL. XVII. No. 65.

1

....

66

not known under that name in the beginning), concerning the nature and worship of the Deity, for the promotion of the glory of God and the salvation of mankind. . . . This doctrine, therefore, is to be obtained, not from the schools of the philosophers, nor from the laws of man, but from the holy scriptures alone, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit." (Prose Works, Vol. IV. pp. 10, 11. Bohn's Edit. Lond. 1853.) "The rule and canon of faith is Scripture alone." Scripture is the sole judge of controversies." "Every man is to decide for himself, through its aid, under the guidance of the Spirit of God. The Scriptures, partly by reason of their own simplicity, and partly through the Divine illumination, are plain and perspicuous in all things necessary to salvation, and adapted to the instruction even of the most unlearned, through the medium of diligent and constant reading." "It is not, therefore, within the province of any visible church, much less of the civil magistrate, to impose their own interpretations on us as laws, or as binding on the conscience; in other words, as matters of implicit faith." (Id. pp. 440, 444, 445.)

Throughout all his works, Milton places the same reliance on the authority of the scriptures. He appeals to them for the settlement of the question. In the last work he published, he uses words stronger, if possible, than those already quoted.

"True religion," he says, " is the true worship and service of God, learned and believed from the word of God only. No man or angel can know how God would be worshipped and served, unless God reveal it. He hath revealed and taught it us in the Holy Scriptures by inspired ministers, and in the Gospel by His own Son and His apostles, with strictest command to reject all other traditions or additions whatsoever; according to that of St. Paul Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema, or accursed.' And Deut. 4: 2, Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it.' Rev. 22: 18, 19, “If any man shall add,' etc. Id. Vol. II. p. 509.

Milton, as Dr. Sumner well remarks, "has shown a partiality in all his works, even on subjects not immediately connected with religion, for supporting his argument by scripture."

Divisions of The Christian Doctrine.

Milton, after Wollebius, comprehends the Christian Doctrine under two divisions: Faith, or the Knowledge of God, and Love, or the Worship of God.

Faith here, as he says, "does not mean the habit of believing, but the things to be habitually believed." Love, also, signifies the whole "knot of Christian graces," or "practical religion, comprehending all the fruits of the Spirit flowing from, and founded upon, vital faith." Milton often, afterwards, uses the word in this sense. (See Tetrachordon, Prose Works, III. 323. Treatise of Civil Power, etc. ii. 534. Parad. Lost. xii. 583.)

Of God.

The first subject under the division is "Of God." Like his great contemporaries, Cudworth and Locke, Milton denies that there can be any such thing as real atheism.

Though there be not a few," he says, "who deny the existence of God, for, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God' (Ps. 14:1), yet the Deity has imprinted upon the human mind so many unquestionable tokens of Himself, and so many traces of Him are apparent throughout the whole of nature, that no one in his senses can remain ignorant of the truth.”—Prose Works, Vol. IV. p. 16.

Besides these tokens and traces of the Divine existence on the soul, and throughout creation, Milton holds that there are direct proofs in the soul, in

"that feeling, whether we term it conscience or right reason, which, in the worst of characters, is not altogether extinguished. Conscience, or right reason does, from time to time, convince every one, however unwilling, of the existence of God, the Lord and ruler of all things, to whom, sooner or later, each must give an account of his own actions, whether good or bad.” — Id. p. 15.

While Milton holds, as a fact, that reason and conscience bear witness to the existence of God, he holds as firmly to the necessity of revelation to unfold to us the character of God, and teach us how we ought to think and feel towards Him. No one can have right thoughts of God," are his words, "with nature or reason alone for his guide, independent of the word or message of God."-Id. pp. 13-16.

Concerning this whole subject - the being and character of the one only God - Milton is not known to have held

anything different from the scripture doctrine as understood by the great body of the Christian church. He embraces, heartily, all that the scriptures teach on this fundamental doctrine.

Some, indeed, think he inclines too much to conceive of the Infinite Spirit under the forms of matter and the affections of human nature.

"When we speak of knowing God," he says, "it must be understood with reference to the imperfect comprehension of man; for, to know God as He really is, far transcends the powers of man's thoughts, much more of his perception." . . . Our safest way is to form in our minds such a conception of God as shall correspond with his own delineation and presentation of Himself in the sacred writings. . . . We may be sure that sufficient care has been taken that the Holy Scriptures should contain nothing unsuitable to the character or dignity of God, and that God should say nothing of Himself which could derogate from His own majesty. It is better, therefore, to contemplate the Deity, and to conceive of Him, not with reference to human passions, that is, after the manner of men who are never weary of forming subtle imaginations respecting Him; but after the manner of Scripture, that is, in the way wherein God has offered Himself to our contemplation ; nor should we think he would say, or direct anything to be written of Himself which is inconsistent with the opinion He wishes us to entertain of His character. Let us require no better authority than God himself for determining what is worthy or unworthy of Ilim. If it repented Jehovah that He had made man ' (Gen. 6 : 6), and ‘because of their groanings' (Judg. 3 : 18), let us believe it did repent Him, only taking care to remember, that what is called repentance, when applied to God, does not arise from inadvertency, as in man; for so He has Himself cautioned us, Numb. 23: 19, 'God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent. . . . (See the whole passage.) If God be said to have made man in His own image, after His likeness (Gen. 1:26), and that, too, not only as to his soul, but also as to his outward form (unless the same words have different significations here and in ch. 5: 3, Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image);" and if God habitually assign to Himself the members and form of man, why should we be afraid of attributing to Him what He attributes to Himself, so long as what is imperfection and weakness when viewed in reference to ourselves, be considered as most complete and excellent when imputed to God? . . . . Let us be convinced that those have acquired the truest apprehension of the nature of God, who submit their understandings to His word; considering that He has accommodated His word to their understandings, and has shewn what He wishes their notions of the Deity should be."...

เ

"In arguing thus, we do not say that God is in fashion like unto man, in

all His parts and members; but that, as far as we are concerned to know, He is of that form which He attributes to Himself in the sacred writings. Id. pp. 16-20.

In all this, we do not discover any unpardonable heresy. And we are the less inclined to look for heresy here, when he adds, as he does immediately after: "It is impossible to comprehend accurately, under any form or definition, the Divine nature." Milton, as it seems to us, makes no more than duly prominent an important truth, viz. that the language of sacred affection which God uses to accommodate Himself to our senses, is to be understood "not in a sense lowered and vague as compared with that which it bears in its ordinary acceptation, but in a sense of incalculably greater intensity and depth."

Decrees of God.

GENERAL DECREES.

From the existence and attributes of God, Milton passes

to the decrees of God.

into general and special.

These he divides, with Wollebius,

"God's General Decree," he says, "is that whereby God has decreed from all eternity, of His own most free will and wise and holy purpose, whatsoever He Himself willed, or was about to do."-Id. p. 30.

Milton holds it absurd to separate decrees from the foreknowledge and counsel or wisdom of God. He makes foreknowledge and wisdom underlie decrees, and be logically before them, or before them in the order of nature, if not in the order of time. This he evidently rests on the postulate, that a thing must be seen to be possible, before it can be determined that it shall be actual. The Creator must see, too, that what is possible, will be best, if it become actual, before He will determine that it shall become actual.

"Properly speaking," he says, "the Divine counsel can be said to depend on nothing but on the wisdom of God Himself, whereby He perfectly foreknew in his own mind, from the beginning, what would be the nature and